Metaphorical Image of Carnival in the Russian Linguistic Picture of the World of the Early 21st Century

The article offers a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the metaphorical potential of the lexeme “carnival” in the Russian linguistic picture of the world. Based on texts from fiction and modern media texts, the commonality and difference in the denotative content of the lexeme under study is established, the broad connotative background formed in the media is noted; the influence of extra linguistic factors on the emergence of additional meanings and shades of meaning is analysed. Using the example of the key lexeme “carnival”, the metaphorical scenarios created during its implementation in denotative and connotative aspects in fiction and journalism are identified and described. The article determines the semantic and pragmatic features of the implementation of the studied lexeme in the representation of the modern political system and its individual participants. It is proved that in literary texts and the media space the lexeme “carnival” changes its denotative meaning and acquires new connotative signs, which are interpreted by the mass addressee based on extralinguistic factors.